


Waystation

by DuaeCat



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Common Cold, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sick Character, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-01 09:36:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10186472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuaeCat/pseuds/DuaeCat
Summary: Ezra was looking forward to a few days of peace and quiet after a hard mission, instead he's stuck with Zeb in the middle of nowhere.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime pre-Twilight of the Apprentice but actual timeline is vague.

Ezra shouldered his duffle bag, giving the other people on the transport shuttle time to rush the exit. Delaying just long enough to let the clog of bodies finish squeezing through the doors only took a minute or two, and it wasn’t as if he was in too big a hurry anyway. If things had gone according to plan Kanan would be outside with transport to wherever they were staying to meet up with everyone else. If not he’d find his own transport, but he was hoping everything was going according to plan.

They’d all split up for the last mission, and while Ezra was pleased he was considered enough of a full fledged Rebellion member to be sent off on his own he’d quickly remembered the disadvantages. Zeb might snore and worse on the bunk below him, but the Ghost was a safe enough place he could relax and sleep most nights, on his own in unknown territory he barely dozed. It meant after a week of watching his own back he was bone-deep exhausted, eyes gritty, mouth dry and throat sore from breathing in the moistureless recycled shuttle air. As tired as he was though, he was looking forward to the next few days. No ship chores, no interruptions, no distractions he was just supposed to tune out, just him and Kanan and whatever training they could manage wherever they were staying.

Ezra made it outside the door of the shuttle and felt the cold wind hit him like a physical blow. It stole the breath from his lungs and stung the exposed skin on his face as he hunched down a little lower in his collar. He had a warmer jacket in his duffle along with other supplies, but it hadn’t seemed that important inside the temperature controlled shuttle. Now he wished he’d taken the time to grab it, but he didn’t want to stop and fumble for it. He squinted through the light wind snow as he looked around for Kanan. There was no sign of him, instead a familiar broad shouldered form loomed even larger under layers of cold weather clothing. Ezra groaned quietly to himself, but made his way over to Zeb.

“You’re here early?” Ezra looked around him to the rented speederbike and then scrubbed his forearm across his nose where it was running in the cold air.

“Yeah. Kanan’s thing ran long, mine went faster. How did you do anyway?” Zeb asked, keeping things vague enough that if anyone did overhear their conversation it would sound innocent enough.

“I did fine. Let’s get going then. And here I was hoping to get a few more days away from your snoring.” Ezra tried for a joke, but it fell a little flat when he couldn’t put quite as much energy into his voice as he planned.

“I think you meant to say ‘thank you, Zeb, for gettin’ the place and making sure it was ready for everyone.’” Zeb either didn’t notice the tone of his voice or brushed it off, getting on the bike and waiting for Ezra to join him.

Ezra got on the bike behind him, settling the duffle against his back where it wouldn’t throw off the balance of the bike and then leaning against Zeb’s back to hold on. It wasn’t until he was gripping at the thick fabric before he belatedly realized he should have taken a moment to pull on his jacket, but he decided it didn’t matter all that much. Zeb’s body cut the wind at least, and as much as he preferred to be the one driving he was just as glad that Zeb was the one who knew the way. He was tired enough to drive them into a building or something like this.

Any other time Ezra probably would have appreciated the view. Long flat plains mostly white with snow and broken up by fences and scattered buildings, and then off in the distance mountains jutted up suddenly out of the landscape. Ezra just hoped it wasn’t a long trip to wherever they were going. He was cold, exhausted, and his nose kept threatening to drip down his face unless he loudly sniffled and caused the cold air to sting the inside of his nose.

Finally, before Ezra started to worry too seriously about if he was freezing to the seat of the bike, they coasted to a stop in front of a small cluster of buildings that seemed to be deserted.

“Go on in, I’ll get the bike stowed.” Zeb motioned to the closest and smallest building.

“What is this place anyway?” Ezra got down stiffly, mentally informing his legs that he was not going to wobble like a tiny loth-kitten after one little ride in the cold.

“Maintenance station for snow-clearing equipment. Right now the snows are too light to need clearing so there’s no one needing to use it, and there’s plenty of room for the Ghost once Hera gets here. It’s got its own solar power system and water system so we’re self-sufficient too.” Zeb started walking the bike without giving Ezra a chance to comment on the building, heading to one of the larger buildings, probably an equipment shed. Ezra trudged the short walk to the first building, not wanting to stay outside any longer than he had to.

Inside was just as cold as outside, but at least there was no wind and once he flipped on the lights he found the heater controls quickly enough. Ezra turned the heat on, turning it all the way up for the moment and looked around. It wasn’t much, a small sitting area and food prep station and when he ventured in further there was a room lined with bunks and a doorway into a ‘fresher. It was obviously for functionality rather than comfort, but at the moment Ezra didn’t care. He dropped his duffle with numb fingers onto one of the bunks across from the one Zeb had obviously claimed. Then he followed the duffle’s example, flopping down heavily onto the bunk and shivering. At least as small as the area was, it was heating up quickly, but it just wasn’t warming him up yet.

Ezra heard Zeb open the door and then close it behind him, but he didn’t bother to get up just yet. He should unpack the few items he needed to, especially the jacket. He should probably get his shoes off and maybe hunt for some blankets. He should definitely eat something, he hadn’t had anything to eat since that morning and if he wasn’t so tired he’d have been starving. All of those things required moving though, and moving seemed like a terrible idea.

“You can crash in a minute, here’s your blanket roll, and if you’ve got a dry set of clothes change into them.” Zeb dropped a bulky but soft pile of fabric beside Ezra.

Ezra grumbled, but slowly hauled himself up to a sitting position, flexing his fingers and then unzipping his duffle bag for his sleepwear. They should be dry, he hadn’t used them all mission. They were thinner than his clothing and even as warm as the air was he hesitated in stripping out of his regular clothes, but as much as he hated to admit it Zeb was right. If his clothes were even slightly damp with travel sweat they would keep him from warming up as quickly.

“There’s heavy duty sleeping bags too, but unless you want to go sleep out in one of the unheated equipment sheds you shouldn’t need ‘em.” Zeb stayed, making sure Ezra got his clothes off and shoved to the end of the bed and his sleepwear on before he bundled up in the blankets.

“No thanks, I’m good here. Your company isn’t that bad.” Ezra tried for another joke and thought it sounded better this time, at least Zeb grinned at it.

“Yeah yeah. Don’t worry, you’re not the first soldier I’ve seen come off of high alert and then fall asleep on his feet. Just get some rest.” Zeb patted him through the blankets and Ezra managed a lazy swat at the affectionate gesture before he tucked his arm back inside the blankets. If Zeb didn’t care about him just falling asleep like this he wasn’t going to argue. He didn’t even stay awake long enough to hear Zeb quietly leave the room.

 

* * *

 

Ezra woke up and wished he hadn’t. He was warm enough, but his head ached from oversleeping and his throat was sore. The air in the cabin was just as dry as the transport had been, stuffing up his nose and in general making it unpleasant to breathe. It didn’t seem fair that sleeping too long could almost make him feel worse than not sleeping enough. He was tempted to pull the covers over his head and not move, but he knew from experience it wouldn’t help anything. He slowly pulled himself up, rubbing over his face and deciding the best thing to do would be dragging himself to the ‘fresher to get cleaned up and hope the hot water helped.

Ezra knew, logically, that sonic showers got him as clean or cleaner than water, and they were much cheaper to maintain, there was no worry about wasting time keeping a tank of water hot for a maintenance station like this one, but it was still a disappointment. He was clean at least, and that felt marginally better, but he’d really hoped for a truly hot shower. He ran his clothes through the cleaner in the bathroom, putting them back on and going looking for Zeb. He didn’t have far to go, Zeb was in the small sitting area taking up an entire line of seats, staring at a data pad. He twitched an ear, looking up as Ezra came in.

“Little more awake now?” Zeb asked, and Ezra realized he must have come in and slept at some point and gotten up in the morning without him ever knowing. He really had been deeply asleep.

“Something like that.” Ezra didn’t really feel the need to try and complain about the fact he still felt wrung out, it wasn’t like Zeb would be all that sympathetic.

“Eeh, well you didn’t miss much. Unless you want to go trekking out in the snow this is it. If you want anything to eat besides ration packs you’ll need to head into town, but we’ve got plenty of those. There’s a couple games, set of Sabbac cards, and a whole lot of nothing to do.” Zeb waved a hand lazily and Ezra shrugged.

“I’m good with doing nothing for a while.” Ezra headed to the food prep area, surveying his options and then putting one of the ration packs in to heat. Maybe the heat would soothe his throat. Drink options just seemed to be water and he grabbed a cup. “No caf?” Not that he cared, but the rest of the crew would be cranky when they showed up and it wasn’t an option.  
  
“When Hera shows up she’ll be bringing the Ghost and all the supplies, if Kanan shows up first he can buy his own caf, and Sabine never travels without her own stash of tea.” Zeb said, and Ezra couldn’t fault his logic there. Theoretically if all went according to plan Hera would show up last, and they could all leave. If someone was late they’d wait for them, or rescue them as necessary.

Ezra hoped food would make him feel better, but he could barely taste it and he finished it off more out of unwillingness to waste it than because he enjoyed any of it. He ended up slumped in one of the chairs, toying with his empty cup and trying to figure out if there was anything else he could do to try and shake the general feeling that he just wanted to crawl back into bed for a week or two. He didn’t even know why, sure it had been a rough week but usually he bounced back after a decent night’s sleep.

Then Ezra sneezed. It caught him by surprise and he barely got his face buried in the crook of his arm in time. His cheekbones throbbed with the force of it and his headache reminded him in no uncertain terms that it was still around and didn’t appreciate the sound or movement. Ezra sniffed, grabbing at the one tiny napkin provided in the ration pack to scrub his face off and then paused mid-sniff. It couldn’t be, all the various discomforts he was dealing with could have entirely reasonable explanations. Or he could be getting sick. He really hoped it was just a lot of unrelated discomforts, he hated being sick. He balled up the napkin, going to throw it away along with the empty tray. He wasn’t getting sick, not a chance. Well, not a very big chance. He was just being impatient and in an hour or two he’d be back to normal. He just needed to take it easy.

 

* * *

 

Zeb ended up heading out to patrol the perimeter before it got too much later. Ezra could have told him there wasn’t anything nearby larger than a loth-rat and nothing felt dangerous, but he was sure it was more to stretch his legs than anything else. When Zeb had said snow earlier Ezra had assumed it was the light dusting from the day before, but fat flakes were thickly falling and looked like that had been for a while.

Ezra uncovered a viewport, settling in and watching the snow fall for a while. He leaned his forehead against it, but whatever the clear material was made of on this planet it was well insulated enough that it barely felt cool. He’d finally admitted to himself that there wasn’t any other explanation at this point, he was sick. He didn’t feel bad enough to indicate a fever, but everything else was bad enough. His nose was clogged and dripping and he ended up stealing a roll of paper from the ‘fresher when there didn’t seem to be anything else suitable to blow his nose into. He scrunched down a little when Zeb came back, letting in a cold draft from the outside.

“Did you even move?” Zeb sounded way too perky for being covered in snow and Ezra glared a little before blowing his nose into the wad of bathroom tissue.

“No.” Ezra nearly winced at the sound of his own voice, he wasn’t expecting to sound so hoarse and stuffed up already.

To his credit, Zeb noticed immediately, pausing in the middle of hanging up his coat to stare at him, ears perked forward.

“What’s the matter with you?” Zeb asked bluntly.

“Nothing. I mean, I’m just sick.” Ezra hoped it was going to be a short conversation.

“Sick with what?” Zeb moved closer so look him over and Ezra resisted the urge to turn away from the prying gaze.

“I don’t know. Some kind of cold, feels like.” Ezra shrugged.

“… A cold?” Zeb just looked confused.

“Yeah, a cold.” It took a moment for it to click with Ezra that Zeb might not have ever had anyone explain what a cold was. “It’s a type of illness, it’s uncomfortable but not dangerous. Runny nose, sneezing, feeling like crap, I might get a cough too. It usually only lasts a few days. Hasn’t anyone on the Ghost gotten sick before?”

“Ah.” Zeb relaxed some at that, rubbing the back of his head. “Lasat have something like that, but most of the time when someone’s not feeling great they tend to keep to themselves.”

Ezra nodded a little. “Not really anywhere else to keep to here.” He rubbed at the side of his head, wishing talking didn’t aggravate his headache.

Zeb frowned, glancing around. “We don’t have any sort of med kit, and I don’t really want to go into town while it’s snowing like this.”

Ezra nodded, he’d suspected as much when he hadn’t seen any obvious medical supplies anywhere. “It’s fine, I can handle a little discomfort.” Before joining up on the Ghost he’d never even considered using medicine for something as mild as a cold. He’d had to reevaluate that his being in top form to do his job was worth more than what a headache pill cost. Now if he’d had something to ease the symptoms he’d probably take it, but it wasn’t like he needed to do anything for the next few days.

“We don’t have any other supplies either, no food besides the ration packs and no hot drinks, no juice.” Zeb looked more put out by their situation than Ezra was and Ezra found himself smiling a little in spite of how awful he felt.

“That kind of stuff would be nice, but I’m just glad I can rest as much as I want the next few days.” Ezra hadn’t expected this level of concern, but he wasn’t going to argue with Zeb actually trying to show he cared.

“Alright, but if you need anything and it’s something we can get, speak up.” Zeb said.

Ezra hesitated, then rubbed the side of his head. “If we’ve got something to wrap some snow up in, a cold pack might help my headache.”

“Right, that I can actually do.” Zeb seemed to relax some at having something productive he could do about the situation and he grabbed his coat, finding a plastic bag. There was more than enough snow just outside to stuff it and Ezra took the finished pack gratefully, pressing it to his head and leaning back with a sniffle.

The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully. Zeb made sure he had a glass of water within reach at all times and found a bin to contain the growing pile of damp crumpled tissue Ezra was generating. Ezra was just glad when Zeb stopped twitching at every sneeze or gross sounding sniffle. It wasn’t like he was trying to be noisy about it.

Ezra was also grateful when Zeb heated up two ration trays and got him his without having to be asked. It was hard to tell with how overcast the sky was, but it was definitely starting to get darker outside and it had to be around dusk.

“Thanks.” Ezra took the hot tray, picking slowly at the food. It was horribly unfair that having a cold always made him hungry, but food ranged from no taste at all to tasting awful.

“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it.” Zeb said gruffly, getting a tired grin out of Ezra.

“Too late, next time I get sick I’m expecting the same level of care, maybe better since you’ve had more practice.” Ezra teased.

“Nah, next time you get to be Kanan’s problem instead.” Zeb sat down with his own tray.

Ezra did his best to ignore how the word ‘problem’ stung a little. “Nope, too late, your job now.”

“Maybe next time you can…” Zeb didn’t get to finish his sentence, because the lights suddenly dimmed, flickered, and then went out, leaving them with only the quickly fading light from the viewport. 


	2. Chapter 2

“Did the snowstorm knock out a power line somewhere?” Ezra’s voice was tense but at least he wasn’t doing anything to make the situation worse. Zeb didn’t want to deal with a bad situation and a freaking out human at the same time.

“Can’t be, this place has its own power supply, a whole set of solar panels. I checked ‘em myself.” Zeb growled, going quickly to the sleeping room. He had a glow rod in with his own supplies and he found it, clicking it over to the lantern function and carrying it back out before they lost what little light was coming in from outside.”

“… Could the storm have knocked out our solar panels?” Ezra asked, and Zeb flattened his ears back, thinking.

“… Maybe. Or maybe a circuit overloaded somewhere and it’s a quick fix.” Zeb tried to be optimistic, searching for an interior panel.

“If it is the solar panels we can’t do anything tonight, or, well, you can, but if you fall off the roof and knock yourself out I’m not in any shape to haul you to a med center.” Ezra said hoarsely. In the dimmer light from the glow rod he looked worse than before. Humans were a little unnerving with their tendency to change color when hot, or cold, or embarrassed, or bruised, or anything else and Ezra hadn’t been looking too great even under the regular lighting. The way he looked now, if he hadn’t already been sitting down Zeb might have worried about him falling over.

“I’m not going up on the roof. I can at least see if they look like they’re damaged. You ok without the light?” Zeb hated the idea of just waiting around, not knowing what was actually wrong. If it was something he could fix, going the whole night without power just because he didn’t bother to look at all would be incredibly irritating.

“Yeah, if I need it I’ve got another glow-rod in my bag. I can find the bedroom without getting lost, even in the dark.” Ezra waved a hand. “Just don’t make me come out after you or you’ll owe me big time.”

“Not planning on it.” Zeb hauled on his outdoor gear, taking his time to bundle up before he grabbed the light, heading out into the snow.

The only good thing about the problem was it was immediately obvious. The solar panels should have been clearly visible, internal heaters keeping them above freezing so the snow that stuck to them melted and dripped off to be filtered and added to the building’s water reserves. Instead they were thickly coated with snow, enough snow they had to have been gathering it for hours. Zeb cursed to himself, heading back inside.

“That was quick, either that’s really good or really bad.” Ezra said, coughing dryly into his hand after raising his voice.

“The panels are covered in snow, looks like their de-icer’s not working.” Zeb grumbled. “Bet it was running off the battery for a while and that finally gave out. “

Ezra groaned at that. “So even if you were to clear the panels off or get the de-icer working, there’s no sunlight to provide any power.”

“Not until morning.” Zeb started to take off his gear and then settled for brushing off what little snow there was. The place was decently insulated, but even then the heat wouldn’t last all night. There was a moment of guilt when he realized he’d let out a good bit of the heat when he’d gone in and out, but there wasn’t exactly any other way to check on the solar panels.

“So we wait it out.” Ezra sounded resigned. “You said there were Sabbac cards?”

“Yeah.” Zeb found the cards, taking a seat close enough play, setting the light nearby where they could see the cards in the glow. He bit back asking if Ezra wanted to just go to bed instead. Ezra wasn’t a kid, even if it was tempting to think of him that way, and there was a fine line between helping him out when he needed a hand and treating him like he was incompetent.

Ezra sounded close to normal while they played at least. They did it often enough to kill time back on-ship that it was easy to forget they were in the middle of nowhere in a snow storm. Ezra got up at one point to grab his jacket and wrap up in a blanket from his bunk, huddled down in the chair but still energetic enough to accuse Zeb of dirty dealing between sniffles.

After a while though it became harder to ignore the dropping temperature. Zeb tucked his hands in closer to warm them between hands and Ezra had gone quiet outside of what little he needed to say to keep playing. Zeb finished the hand and started gathering up the cards, giving in to the inevitable.

“Know it’s not that late, but karabast, the dark makes it seem like it. I’m going to bed.” Zeb stood up, watching Ezra.

“Yeah. Good point. You mentioned something about heavy duty sleeping bags? Unless I imagined it last night.” Ezra stood up, staying tightly wrapped up in the blanket.

“I did, hope they’re as good as they’re supposed to be.” Zeb grabbed up the glow-rod, carrying it for both of them as they walked the short distance to the bedroom.

“Me too,” Ezra said, a little too feverently and Zeb paused in getting the gear out. He hadn’t noticed it when Ezra was playing cards, but Ezra was shivering now, clutching the blanket tight around him.   
  
“You know, be even warmer if we layer them and share one.” Zeb suggested, hoping Ezra wouldn’t put up too much resistance to the idea. He knew exactly how stubborn Ezra could be, but it was blasted cold.

“You really think I’m going to be able to squeeze into a sleeping bag with you?” Ezra sounded skeptical, but it wasn’t outright rejection and Zeb took it as a good sign.

“They’re big enough a Hutt or two would be comfortable sleeping in ‘em.” Zeb unrolled one to demonstrate, it wasn’t even that big of an exaggeration. When coming up with one size fits most equipment places either guessed human or went with larger species assuming that better too big than too small. He’d wanted to be sure he’d fit in the provided sleeping bags in case of a situation like this one, and he’d been pleasantly surprised. Then again, for a task like snow removal humans might not be the first pick for hiring and whoever kept the building stocked would have bought appropriately.

“Guess it w-would be warmer.” Ezra talked stiffly, sounding like he was trying not to let his voice waver when he shivered and Zeb took that as close enough to a yes to start stuffing one of the bags down inside the other and gathering up the rest of the blankets to form a nest at the top. With two they couldn’t use the built-in hood, but this would work just as well to hold in the heat.

Zeb stripped down out of his cold weather clothing, and even with all his fur it was still unpleasantly cold as he crammed into the sleeping bag, squirming around to get comfortable.

“You know I’m probably not going to be pleasant to sleep beside, right? It’s not my fault if I get snot on you, so I better not hear any complaining.” Ezra hesitated, standing there and shivering.

“I know, get in here.” Zeb held the sleeping bag opening for him, giving him an impatient look. Ezra finally stripped down to his underclothes under the blanket, trying to expose as little of himself to the cold air as necessary as he crammed in beside Zeb.

Zeb tucked the blankets around the opening to the sleeping bag to keep the heat trapped before shutting off the glow-rod. Not that there was much heat to trap yet, but it wouldn’t take long for the small area to warm up with both of them in it. Ezra made a token effort to stay scooted to one side of the sleeping bag before he gave up, pressing against Zeb’s side and sniffing wetly.

If it hadn’t gotten so cold, Zeb wouldn’t have even suggested something like their current arrangement. He wasn’t exactly eager to end up as a snot-rag, or deal with the restless sleeping habits most sick people had. As it was though, he would have worried about Ezra’s ability to stay warm enough in a sleeping bag by himself while sick. It was a relief when Ezra finally stopped shivering, relaxing against his side. Even if that moment was followed by a flurry of loud sneezes that made Zeb unbelievably grateful that Ezra had remembered to bring the bathroom tissue with him when coming to bed.

Finally Ezra settled into making the soft stuffed up snores that signaled he was dozing at least and Zeb let himself relax as well, closing his eyes and drifting off to get what sleep he could before morning.

 

* * *

 

Zeb woke up to the now far too familiar sound of Ezra coughing. One part of him wished he could do something to help, the rest of him wanted to just put a pillow over Ezra’s face for some peace and quiet. It wasn’t like he hadn’t known what he was getting into though and Zeb turned his head a little, blinking blearily at the light coming in from the other room. It took a minute for the significance of that to penetrate past the sleep fog, and then he was slowly hauling himself out of the nice warm sleeping bag and grabbing for his clothes.

He knew Ezra couldn’t help it, and he knew it had to be worse for Ezra actually having to be the one sick, but sharing close quarters hadn’t been fun. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d woken up to Ezra coughing, or sneezing, or trying to blow his nose quietly and failing. Somehow knowing it would be a jerk move to get angry at Ezra for it made it all the more frustrating.

“Need my help with the solar panels?” Ezra spoke hoarsely, not making any move to leave the sleeping bag just yet.

“Doubt it, you stay put, if I need you I’ll come get you.” Zeb finished pulling on his winter gear. If Ezra was healthy he’d probably have enjoyed dumping him out of the sleeping bag, but he didn’t want to risk Ezra getting any sicker. Even if Ezra said this was normal for a harmless illness he didn’t like the idea that it might suddenly stop being normal and harmless and he’d be the one responsible for it.

“Fine with me.” Ezra scrunched down a little more in the sleeping bag, pulling the outer blankets closer to make up for the loss of Zeb’s body-heat.

Zeb made sure everything was zipped up, snapped, and otherwise as bundled up as he was going to get, taking one last jealously annoyed glare at the softly snoring pile of blankets before heading out into the snow.

 

* * *

 

The roof was slippery and the wind was worse without the building blocking some of it, but at least the snow had stopped falling. The cause of the problem was immediately visible, the cord for the panel defroster had snapped. There was no way to tell how long it had been broken without frequent snow storms to need the defroster. It was a quick enough repair and Zeb thoroughly taped the spliced together wire before putting it back inside the electrical panel and brushing his hands off. He started to head back down off the roof before pausing. He groaned, hanging his head and glad he was the only one out there to witness his near-screwup. With no battery charge there was no way for the defroster to come on, which was the whole reason he hadn’t even attempted it the night before. With a long-suffering sigh Zeb started carefully brushing snow off the panels to expose them to the sunlight.

 

* * *

 

Zeb shook off the snow like he was shaking water out of his fur before coming inside. Once he got about half of the panels cleared the defroster kicked in, the wet snow starting to slide off the rest of them. Inside the air was still chill, but the heater was already kicking on.

He eyed the chairs, seriously considering a nap. Ezra would be fine, and with some space between them he shouldn’t be woken up every few minutes. Instead he heaved a sigh, checking the bedroom.

“Power’s back on, I’m going to make a supply run. Stay out of trouble until I get back.” Zeb prodded the blanket lump until he got a sleepy acknowledgement, and then headed back out to the equipment shed to grab the bike.

 

* * *

 

Zeb absolutely trusted Ezra when he said he didn’t need any sort of medication to handle a cold. He also knew the absolute last thing he wanted to do was spend another night being kept up by all of the various… sounds Ezra was unable to help making when he was sick. There had to be medications for humans to manage the symptoms, and the sooner he got Ezra well again the sooner he could get a decent night’s sleep.

“Where’s your medicine section?” Zeb had done a cursory circuit of the store and found most of the supplies he wanted, but he hadn’t seen anything that looked like medical supplies.

“Sold out.” The person running the store looked apologetic.

“Sold out?” Zeb grumbled and set what he’d managed to find on the counter.

“Yeah, off season means fewer shipments and any sort of medicine gets snapped up quick. If it’s something bad you can catch a transport to the Imperial Medical Center.” The guy kept talking as he bagged the items.

“He said it’s a cold, was hoping you’d have something for that.” Zeb figured it didn’t hurt to explain it.

“Best to just wait it out then rather than deal with all of that if it’s just a cold. Good luck with it.” The shopkeeper said.

Zeb nodded, taking the bags and heading back to the bike to make the long drive back.

 

* * *

 

Ezra was awake and had moved back to the chair with a blanket, roll of bathroom tissue, and the cards. He didn’t look much better, but he wasn’t buried in the sleeping bags like some kind of hibernating animal and Zeb was going to take that as a good sign. He looked up at Zeb’s entrance, tugging the blanket tighter around him at the draft from the door. “Good trip?”

“Eeeh, not bad. Could have been better.” Zeb set the bags on the counter, starting to sort through them. Not that there was a whole lot, but even without any medicine in them he was glad to have made the trip out.

“Beer and porn shops closed because of snow?” Ezra teased, and even as rough as his voice was the playful tone was back.

“Didn’t check. Did find out that the only place to reliably get any medicine around here is the Imperial medical center.” Zeb snorted at that.

“You didn’t need to go out for that.” Ezra said immediately, and glancing over Zeb could tell he looked guilty.

“Did need a few other things though, and thought it wouldn’t hurt to check.” Zeb tossed a new roll of bathroom tissue his direction. “Saw you’d nearly gone through a roll before.”

“Can’t really help that.” Ezra mumbled, pulling some off to scrub under his nose.

“You don’t need to apologize for being sick you know.” Zeb took one of the cans of soup he’d been able to find at the store, opening it up to start it heating.

“I know that.” Ezra said, but he still sounded like it hadn’t quite clicked.

Zeb snorted lightly, getting the hot soup into a bowl and putting in a spoon, carrying it over. “Real convincing. Here, I know I didn’t have to go out, but I wanted to.”

Ezra reached out to take the bowl, cupping his hands around it. “I don’t really think you wanted to spend this time having to put up with me while I’m sick, or having to take care of me. “

“Wouldn’t be my first choice, but since it happened I want to make sure you’re taken care of. You’d do the same for me if I needed it, that’s part of being a team, part of being friends.” Zeb patted Ezra’s back carefully.

“I… yeah. Yeah I would. Thanks.” Ezra took a careful sip of the soup, but he seemed like he’d relaxed some.

“Good. Now that we’ve got that cleared up, the store may have been out of real medicine, but I know a few tricks to getting over a mild illness that we can do with what we’ve got right here.” Zeb said brightly, getting a suspicious look from Ezra.

“What kind of tricks?” 


	3. Chapter 3

Ezra had to admit he’d been fairly suspicious of Zeb’s good intentions. Zeb was the kind of roommate who was just as likely to hide his stuff for the hell of it as to do anything nice. It was almost too nice that he was willing to share bed space so he didn’t have to shiver half the night, go out into the snow to care of the power problems, and head all the way back to the space port in search of medicine. Ezra kept waiting for Zeb to get bored with taking care of him or pull some sort of prank to break the mood.

At the moment, though, Ezra was willing to go along with it. He wasn’t going to argue if Zeb wanted to fix food for him or clean up after him, and if any of his home remedies seemed suspicious Ezra could always say no. So far it seemed harmless enough.

“If we had the stuff for it I’d tell you to take a long soak in hot water, warm you up all the way to your core and the steam’s good for helping loosen up all that gunk in your airways. This’ll do about the same though.” Zeb talked as he fiddled with the supplies, making sure the pot full of water was just barely bubbling.

“I can’t really remember the last time I had a hot bath.” Ezra said, more to himself than intending to comment on the treatment. That earned him an incredulous look.

“You’ve never had a bath?” Zeb paused in what he was doing.

“Probably as a kid or something, I just don’t really remember it. And after that Lothal’s not exactly a swamp planet, drinking water had priority.” Ezra coughed into his hand, trying to ease the tight feeling in his chest that always got more annoying when he had to talk.

“And Hera’s not exactly the kind of Captain to take us to a spa or bathhouse. Sit here.” Zeb waited for Ezra to sit down by the counter and draped the first blanket around his shoulders even if it had been pleasantly warm in the waystation since Zeb fixed the solar panels. “Lean over the water a little, not too close, just enough so that the steam’s still warm when you breathe it in.” Zeb draped the second thinner blanket over Ezra’s head, making a tent over the pot.

“So I’m getting steamed like a seafood dumpling?” Ezra breathed in deeply, the warm wet air did feel nicer on his throat, even if his nose started running immediately.

“Right, except I don’t think anyone’s going to be too interested in steamed loth-rat.” Zeb said, easy enough to hear even though the blanket.

“I don’t know, I’ve seen you eat some pretty gross things.” Ezra chuckled, and then started coughing again, taking deep breaths of the steam when he could and then hacking, making a face when he finally got up some phlegm. “Eaaargh.” Ezra fumbled outside the steam tent for the bathroom tissue, to spit the mucus into.

“Sounds like it’s starting to work. Got some juice for you too, to wash the taste out.” Zeb passed him a cup once he finished with the tissue.

Ezra took a long sip before he spoke. “Yeah, it’s easier to breathe like this. Thanks.”

“Just keep it up until you get too bored with it.” Zeb advised him, and Ezra nodded a little under a blanket. It wasn’t like he could do much other than sit under the dark blanket and breathe, he couldn’t even doze like this since he needed to keep his head over the pot.

“What if the water boils off first?” Ezra asked.

“If you still want to keep going I’ll top it off, doubt you’ll want to steam for that long though.” Zeb patted his back lightly and then Ezra could hear him getting up and moving around.

“You’re probably right.” Ezra kept his eyes closed, relaxed as much as he was able, and just breathed until the next time he needed to cough or blow his nose.

 

* * *

 

Ezra flopped down onto the couch, dropping the roll of tissue within easy reach. The steam had helped a lot more than he thought it would and as long as he didn’t breathe too deep he didn’t feel like coughing. The only downside was hunching over started another headache pounding dully throughout his skull.

“Need anything else?” Zeb broke the quiet, and Ezra rubbed at the side of his head.

“Nah, but I am really wishing there was some way to get a painkiller out here.” Ezra closed his eyes, trying to just relax and will the headache away.

“Head or throat or something else?” Zeb questioned, a little more quietly.

“Head, throat’s been feeling better.” Ezra had been worried the coughing would irritate his throat, but Zeb constantly pushing juice on him seemed to have done the trick to keep it soothed.

“May not have any painkillers, how about a snow pack?” Zeb asked, and Ezra nodded before he could catch himself.

“Yeah, that would feel nice. As long as I don’t have to get bundled up and go get it myself.” Ezra was willing to forgo the comfort if it meant not having to move.

“I’ll get it for you, stay put.” Zeb rustled around the small area, no doubt gathering up what he’d need before Ezra could hear the door open and feel the cold draft from outside.

It only took a moment for Zeb to come back, snow filled bag wrapped in a length of cloth. He plopped the whole bundle onto the top of Ezra’s head before draping the blanket that hadn’t gotten steamed and damp over Ezra’s lap.

“Thanks.” Ezra got the snow pack settled comfortably on his head while Zeb sat down on the couch beside him. “If you want me to take one of the chairs, I can.”

“Nah.” Zeb patted his shoulder heavily. “Just going to read for a while and the light’s better here.”

Ezra knew that was a lie, the light was better by the window, but he was too worn out to protest. He wasn’t sleepy exactly, just exhausted even if he hadn’t done anything all day. In any case, Zeb’s bulk was comfortingly solid and warm right next to him and after a minute he slumped against his side, getting comfortable. If Zeb didn’t want to be used as a cushion, he could move to a chair.

“And thanks again, for all of this. I mean I said it before, but I know you’d rather I’d have been Kanan’s problem or something.” Ezra cracked an eye open to watch Zeb read from the datapad. The quiet and cold from the snow pack was working about as well as he could hope to ease the ache.

Zeb snorted quietly. “You’re fine. Just know you’d rather be taken care of by someone who has some idea of what to do with a human. Keep thinking I’m going to get back to the ship and everyone’s going to be horrified that I didn’t know, I dunno, that humans heal faster if you chuck ‘em out in the snow for a while.”

“Don’t do that!” Ezra said a little too quickly. “No, you’re doing fine, I don’t have any complaints. Just keep doing what you’d do if I was another Lasat and you’ll be fine.” There was a long beat and belatedly he remembered that might not be the best thing to remind Zeb about. That he wasn’t and never would be another Lasat. But Zeb just patted his shoulder again.

“Shut up before you make your head worse.” Zeb grumbled, but it sounded oddly pleased and Ezra let out the breath he was holding, blowing his nose for the thousandth time and leaning back against Zeb’s side to just relax.

 

* * *

 

 “Next part doesn’t need anything special.” Zeb sat down at the end of the bunk after Ezra stretched out on it, even as sturdy as they were built the metal still creaking a little under the sudden weight.

“What’s the next part anyway?” Ezra suspected it was getting some actual sleep. He hadn’t gotten much the night before, even if he’d been warm enough.

“Relaxing.” Zeb tugged one of Ezra’s legs into his lap and pulled off the sock. Before Ezra could question it, he was running a finger lightly over the sole.

Ezra stifled a laugh, jerking his foot back. “Hey!”

Zeb looked at him with obvious confusion. “Know human feet are more sensitive, but even that was enough to hurt?”

“What?” Ezra took just a moment to catch up to what Zeb was getting at. “Oh, no, it didn’t hurt, it was too light, it tickled.”

“It tickled.” Zeb shook his head slightly, tugging on Ezra’s foot again. Ezra reluctantly let him have it, this time the touch over the bottom of his foot was firmer. “Better?”

“Yeah. I’ll tell you if you press too hard.” Ezra was done even attempting to protest what Zeb was doing unless it was actually unpleasant.

“You better.” Zeb rubbed over his foot more purposefully this time, kneading the muscles surprisingly well.

It made sense, Ezra mused to himself, putting a forearm over his eyes to block the light. As much as Zeb used his feet for balance or gripping or climbing they probably got sore, even if he never said anything about it. Lasat deciding that foot rubs were just as good for a sick person as soup and soaking in hot water wasn’t farfetched at all. It did feel kind of nice too, and by the time Zeb switched over to his other foot he was halfway dozing. He was out like a light and never even remembered Zeb dragging the blankets over him and turning out the light.

 

* * *

 

Ezra woke up slowly in the dim light from the sunlight coming from the other room. For several long minutes he just lay sprawled under the blankets, not really aware of much. Zeb’s soft snoring came from the other bunk, familiar and nearly white noise at this point and Ezra was tempted to try and get back to sleep. As comfortable as he was though, he wasn’t sleepy, and as he blinked up at the ceiling slowly what had changed started becoming apparent. He didn’t feel entirely awful and his first thought was that he should try not to move and not risk losing the feeling. After a moment though he realized how silly that was and slowly pulling himself up, breathing experimentally though his nose. A tiny bit stuffy, but nowhere near the endless clogged fountain he’d been before. The tight feeling in his chest seemed to be gone too, and he excitedly took a deep breath, filling his lungs as far as it felt they could go before he ended in a cough. So deep breathing was still a challenge, but regular breathing was fine, he’d take the improvement. He could handle a little bit of a nagging cough, as long as all the other symptoms were absent, he’d done it often enough back on Lothal.

With a great deal better spirits Ezra left the bunk, heading into the main room for some breakfast.

He’d just finished heating up the first tray when he heard movement from the bedroom and put a second tray in to warm for Zeb. There was still juice left, and he didn’t feel any guilt over grabbing it to go with the bland ration pack.

Zeb made his way into the room, grunting his approval at the fact he didn’t have to wait for hot food, grabbing the tray. “You’re looking better.”

“Feeling it. I can breathe again.” Ezra sniffed to illustrate. “And taste again.”

“Too bad there’s not really anything worth tasting, eh?” Zeb chuckled, sitting down nearby.

“Ration packs are still better than everything tasting like sick.” Ezra pointed out, getting a grin from Zeb.

“I’ll take your word for it.” Zeb sounded as quietly glad to be back to their usual relaxed banter as Ezra was. They’d both nearly finished their food when the com unit that had been quietly sitting on the shelf the past couple days unexpectedly chirped. There was a started moment where they both glanced at each other and then scrambled for it. Zeb beat Ezra to it, holding it up as he answered.

“Specter Four here. Yeah. Uh huh.” Zeb spoke into the com unit between long pauses, where the speaker was too far away and too quiet for Ezra to make out any actual words. He stood frustrated, watching the one sided conversation.

“Well?” Ezra demanded when Zeb finished the transmission and started to put it back down.

“Sabine’s mission ended up hotter than expected and Hera had to do an extraction, but they’re both fine and she still finished her objective. They’ll be here in roughly twelve hours. Kanan’s already booked transport, so he’s coming in tomorrow morning. Then we can all get off this iceball.” Zeb sounded pleased, and Ezra grinned.

“That’s great news.” Other than the power outage the little waystation hadn’t been too awful, but Ezra wasn’t going to be sad to leave it behind.

“Even though that means the med kit’s not arriving until after you don’t need it anymore? Great timing, that.” Zeb chuckled, and Ezra made a face.

“Yeah, well, story of my life. At least I’m used to this kind of thing. Having someone else around to keep me company was a nice change though.” Ezra reached up to lightly punch Zeb’s arm. “Speaking of, while I’m feeling good, want to show me where you were patrolling around here?”

“Sure, just don’t push yourself too hard. If you end up sick again I’ll get Hera’s permission to strap you down to the bunk like cargo until you stop being stupid.” Zeb mock-threatened, slipping the com unit into a pocket in case they were contacted again, and went to start putting on his coat.

“Why Zeb, I had no clue you were such a perv. I think I might be shocked.” Ezra deadpanned, while Zeb sputtered and aimed a swat at him that he easily dodged on his way to get his own jacket. “Don’t worry, I’ll take it easy, I just want at least a little fresh air before we’re back on the ship breathing in recirculated air all day.”

“Eh, true. Better than the alternative though. And get your mind out of the gutter.” Zeb waited until they were both bundled up before he opened the door.

Ezra braced himself against the sudden cold, but with the sun out and the wind still it wasn’t quite so bad as when it was storming. Still, it was colder than he liked even if the air was wonderfully clean and the sun dazzling after being cooped up indoors for a while. “You know what they say, you can take the loth-rat out of the gutter…”

“But you can’t make it drink?” Zeb chucked, snow softly crunching underfoot.

“What? No, that doesn’t even make sense.” Ezra protested, following him out.

“You don’t make sense.” Zeb retorted, making Ezra snort indignantly even as he grinned. After a moment he leaned down, gathering up a handful of snow and packing it into a ball, flinging it accurately right into Zeb’s broad back and making him sputter.

“I thought you wanted to patrol?” Zeb turned, starting to reach down to gather up a much larger scoop of snow. Ezra glanced around wildly before realizing there wasn’t any cover available.

“I, uh, I mean.” Ezra didn’t even have time to form a response before the soft packed snowball bigger than his head nearly bowled him over. “Hey!” 

“You started it.” Zeb grinned, making Ezra huff and then bite back a cough as he started gathering up more snow to retaliate.

 

* * *

 

They only stayed out a short time before Ezra’s energy started running out a lot faster than he’d like. He might be well on the way to recovering from his brief cold, but he wasn’t entirely up to his usual standards. Zeb noticed and cut the snowball fight short to lead them both back inside. A small part of Ezra wanted to protest, that he wasn’t some sort of invalid, but his pride wasn’t worth the discomfort.

Ezra found himself herded back to the couch as soon as he was out of his heavy snow gear, blanket back in its now-usual place draped over his lap and a bowl of hot soup shoved at him.

“You know I’m fine, right?” Ezra decided not to protest, wrapping his slightly chilled hands around the soup bowl. As soon as he was back in the warm air the urge to cough went away again. He’d gotten sick often enough before to know what pushing himself too hard too soon felt like, and he still felt fine, just tired.

“I know, just appreciate I’m still feeling generous.” Zeb seemed satisfied that he’d done his job, going to mop up the snowmelt they’d tracked in.

“I do, really.” Ezra meant it to come out light and teasing, but it ended up being a little more sincere than he intended. Zeb’s sudden smile meant he didn’t regret it though. “If we weren’t eternally even I’d owe you, big time.”

“Good thing we are then, eh?” Zeb chuckled, finishing the small chores needed to keep the small area habitable before taking a seat in one of the chairs.

“Yeah. Looking forward to being back on the ship again?” Ezra asked, slowly sipping on the hot soup. It may have been cold, but the time spent outside had helped clear his head and shake off some of the tension that came from being forced to stay inside.

“Mmm, it’s kind of nice not having Chopper underfoot, but yeah. It’ll be good to get things back to normal.” Zeb waved a hand at the window “And no worrying about freezing to death going out for groceries.”

“Right. Because deep space is so much more hospitable,” Ezra teased, getting a huff for his trouble. “I’ll be glad to be back too.”

Zeb reached over, ruffling his hair and nearly spilling his soup, and Ezra swatted at his hand before settling back in the chair. It would be good to be back, but this hadn’t been nearly as bad as he feared. The idea that he could count on others to have his back still felt a little strange, but he was starting to get used to it. He kind of hoped someday he’d take it for granted.


End file.
